Cricket loss makes Oz athletes take it out on washing machine
Rahul Tripathi, TNN, Oct 15, 2010, 12.45am IST
NEW DELHI: At the top of the medal tally and the undisputed champions of the Commonwealth Games, the Australian team, sadly didn’t show any sporting spirit when their cricket team lost the Test series to India on Wednesday.
Enraged by the humiliating loss, some athletes, according to highly-placed sources in Delhi Police, went berserk, destroying electrical fittings and furniture in their tower in the Games Village on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Not just that, policemen posted there say they also shouted slogans against batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who played a pivotal role in ensuring India’s victory in the Bangalore match, and flung a washing machine down from the eighth floor of their tower.
Their hooliganism started on Tuesday when Sachin scored a double century. “The house-keeping staff tried to stop them but to no avail,” said a senior police officer handling security inside the Village. Stunned by the little master’s stellar performance, they first damaged electrical fittings and fixtures in their block.
On Wednesday, when India brownwashed Australian 2-0 to keep the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Australian athletes reportedly threw a washing machine down from the eighth floor, said a senior officer. Mercifully, no one was injured.
Delhi Police, which received a complaint about this vandalism, tried to downplay the incidents to prevent them from snowballing into a diplomatic embarrassment for Australia.
On reports that some Australian athletes went berserk inside the Games Village after their cricket team lost the Test series to India, a senior officer posted there said that they have not received any complaints from Organising Committee (OC) which owns the property inside the Games Village. “Therefore, we have not registered any case,” said a senior police officer.
Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said: “No complaint has been received. We have found a broken washing machine from the block where the athletes were staying. We are trying to establish as to how the machine reached there.”
OC officials didn’t pursue the matter. “We have not given any complaint and the matter has been sorted out after discussion with the Australian chef-de-mission,” said an official. When asked whether the Australian athletes have tendered any apology, he declined any comment.